TRIB TALK

Monday

“There’s something about Sen. Ted Cruz that makes me feel like he could be just like a 5-year-old with his hands over his ears trying to drown out what others are saying.”

“I just wanted to say how very proud I am of each and every person who was a part of the human wall to support Michael Sam.”

“When I entered the MU School of Journalism in l927, the students all assumed that the Tribune hated us. We called it ‘The Turbine.’ Then, 67 years ago, The Missourian actually was a competitor. The other day Hank Waters made a notably nice editorial compliment to our dear Dean Mills. Thank you. We have all mellowed.”

“It seems a little astounding to know two schools are now named after the Battles. Our school board seems to be inflicted with a terminal case of political correctness for which apparently there’s no cure. I have no problem naming schools after the Battles. I’m sure they did good works here in the confines of Columbia. But to say they are more worthy than Jane Froman, who nearly got killed in a plane crash while entertaining our soldiers overseas during World War II, or Leon Johnson, who was a colonel at the famous and bloody raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania during the Second World War, for which he got the Medal of Honor and retired as a full general. To think that they are less worthy than the two Battles to have anything named after them makes the school board look kind of idiotic.”

“I think the closer a person gets to the end of their life, the more they appreciate life, and it’s more likely the first words they say to anybody would be pleasant words — words that make others feel like they could jump for joy. But some people are just mean and heartless all the way to death. People should realize how quickly life goes by and should want the memory of them to be they were a good person.”

“Call me a hard-nosed, callous SOB, but I thought once a person is found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt of a felony — one so heinous as the convicted felon who is on death row now filing a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company — they lose their rights to vote, they lose their rights to firearms and, if I’m not mistaken, they lose their rights to benefits. So why on God’s green Earth do we allow these felons to file lawsuits because they’re afraid they might suffer at the hands of the pharmaceutical drug?”

“Gun control laws enacted by individual cities have limited effectiveness because it is so easy to bring guns purchased outside the city into the city. For example, thousands of guns used in crimes in Chicago have been traced to a single store outside the city. Gun control laws enacted by states are more effective in reducing murder rates. That was found by a study conducted at Johns Hopkins University.”

“Michael Taylor is on death row and is scheduled for execution on Feb. 26 for raping and killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in 1989. Taylor has filed a lawsuit citing the ‘inhumane pain’ the lethal drug injection could cause. A person in his situation didn’t care about the suffering of his victim; therefore, why should the state — basically you and I — care about the suffering of the perpetrator? If people don’t care, there is a process that can be followed to revoke the Eighth Amendment. If people don’t care, are they not then reducing themselves and the state — you and me — to the criminal and immoral level of that perpetrator? Typical death penalty advocacy: It is wrong to kill; he killed, so we kill him. He didn’t care about the victim’s suffering; we don’t care about his suffering. Makes one think, doesn’t it?”

“These cable companies are holding America for ransom. They want to dictate the little freedom of choice we have. They want to show us that they got us by our scrotum and there’s nothing we can do about it. I would think a fair price for television that would allow people to also have their Internet shows would be maybe $25 or $30 a month, just like you would a phone bill. If they would all agree to be satisfied all the way around because they would have a lot more customers.”

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